Is a Self-Diagnosis Legitimate?

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It depends on the purpose and circumstances.

I don't mind if self-diagnosed people join forums or support groups to try to find information and help for their problems or if just want to talk to someone like-minded who they can relate to. In my opinion they should be welcome, but it would be best if they let others in the group/forum know that they are self-diagnosed so that they are not misrepresenting themselves.

What I think self-diagnosed people should NOT do is:
- Go around pretending they've been professionally diagnosed.
- Use the diagnosis as an excuse.
- Present themselves as legitimate aspies/auties and go around telling people what it's like and "teaching" them myths and misconceptions about ASD. In many cases self-diagnosed people don't fully or correctly understand ASD and don't have enough knowledge about it, so they just spread wrong information and give people the wrong impression of what real aspies/auties are like.

Self-diagnosis is not very reliable. A lot of people are wrong about their self-diagnosis, but they don't realize that themselves. I have seen a lot of people who thought that having a couple of mild symptoms/traits meant that they have AS/autism. However, I have also seen people who have done a lot of research and spent months getting to know ASD better before self-diagnosing. Self-diagnosis is not always wrong. Some people are right about it, but it's just not very reliable and it's hard to know exactly how well each person understood ASD before they self-diagnosed, which is why it's hard to tell if their diagnosis should be considered "legitimate".

I want to thank everyone for their insightful responses and I am happy to see that for the most part this did not turn into some huge argument. I really am looking for very personal opinions and I believe that no opinion can be wrong, and this seems to have done the job quite well.

I'm not sure if this is out of line, but perhaps I could get a little more specific (or I'm just venting and being self-centered). This is why I personally believe I probably have AS, and if someone would like to give their opinion I would greatly appreciate it, and if you don't, that's totally fine and I understand you guys probably get people saying "DO I HAVE ASPERGERS? THESE ARE MY REASONS" and I'm sure it gets really irritating.

I currently go to college in the middle of nowhere so there's really no chance of seeking an official until after I graduate (which is really unfortunate). My brother was diagnosed a few weeks ago, at age 25, but I had been researching AS for about 5 years prior. My brother very strongly believes that I also have AS because we share very similar traits and very similar ways of being, and honestly I think we feel that we are the only two people on the planet who truly understand each other. He described having AS to me in this way: say the world is completely run by dogs. Everyone on the planet is a dog, except for you, and you are a cat. You, however do not know you are a cat, so you spend your whole life trying to be a dog, when you simply aren't one. This was very poignant for me because I felt I could very easily relate to that statement. I'm going to go with bullet points from here on out:

-Both my brother and I had very early language development
-We often played "together" but really we both realized that played next to each other, or he was assigned one duty and I the other.
-My mother describes me as a "Drama Queen" as a little girl
-I always had a terrible time making friends in elementary school, and when I did, I would "use" them like how I used my toys, and if they did not do what I told them, I became very frustrated and would not want to play with them anymore.
-In school, whenever teams needed to be made, I would patiently wait for everyone to get their partners, because I learned that none of the other children really liked me very early, so I would always be partners with whatever other reject kid there was.
-I was obsessed with cats. When we got to go to the library in school, I would pick out the exact same three books on cats every time. When we were old enough to pick out more than one book, I was completely incapable of making a decision (this is a story I heard from my mom's friend who worked at the school library when I was much older), and I'm STILL completely incapable of making a decision (it takes me 10 times longer than a normal person).
-When I got older, I became obsessed with Pokemon, which soon morphed into all Anime and Manga, which led me to obessive drawing.
-I have a much higher connection with animals than I do people. I would much rather hang out with my dog than go to a crowded cafe.
-I hated birthday parties, especially my own. I always felt that my house was a sanctuary, away from the noisiness of school and other children. I was always very depressed after my birthday parties because I so desperately wanted to have fun, but just couldn't.
-I could only manage to play with friends about once a month, and that was my big outting--going to a friend's house (and I hated when they came to mine!) I was perfectly content arranging my toys, even as I got too old for them, by myself, watching movies that I had already seen billions of times.
-I have been called "weird" ever since Montessori school (where I played almost entirely by myself) and it was obvious very early that I would not make friends easily.
-I was teased all throughout school, usually because my thoughts, no matter how stupid they sounded, or how inappropriate, or if they were interrupting the teacher, would just fall out of my mouth. I was also very slow to mature.
-I have a monotone voice and often get pronouns, cause and effect, and other things switched up in sentences and have "mouth farts" where a word will simply not want to come out and I keep repeating the first couple of letters of a word until I have to "restart" by going "BLAAAAHHHHH" with my tongue hanging out and then concentrating on the word very hard and say it very slowly. Then I can resume what I was saying.
-I didn't learn body language until I went to Center for Creative Youth (a pre-college program) in high school and took a short improv class. I thought that's how everyone learned!
-Throughout middle and high school I became severely depressed and tried to kill myself when I was fifteen, landing myself in a psychiatric hospital where I was diagnosed with (who would have guessed) depression.
-When I was sixteen I discovered Asperger Syndrome on the internet, read about it, and said, "holy mother of god that's me." And naturally became entirely obsessed with it. I went to a psychiatrist where I told her all the things that were bothering me, and mentioned AS. She said, "no, I don't think you have Asperger's, but you definitely have Depersonalization Disorder." Which is absolutely true--I do have DP, but it's also a common within the autistic community. So I abandoned my connection with WP (because psychiatrists are always right), until my brother called me this year to tell me his psychologist suspected he has it. So I did more extensive research, and realized that it still describes me perfectly, especially the articles I've read on girls with AS, and every time I think, "This is it, this is why I think so much differently than everyone I know," the depersonalization lifts, as if the DP was a defense mechanism for being a cat in a world of dogs. But then I think, "or I'm just a stupid hypochondriac," and the Depersonalization comes back.
-I have violent, hallucinatory panic attacks when there is sensory overload. Fluorescent lighting drives me completely insane and I can hear a TV on mute two blocks away. Did I mention that eye contact is extremely painful, that I'm almost debiliattingly ticklish, and want to punch anyone who isn't a close friend or family member when they come into my personal space?
-I've only had one romantic relationship so far...
-I'm going to art school right now for my BFA, and coming in as a freshmen I thought to myself so hopefully, "art students! they'll be just like me, just as weird!" I was wrong. Even at 21 I can't make friends and am told I'm crazy. I don't like parties unless someone has poured a bottle of whiskey down my throat, and show openings drive me completely insane because of the amount of people who go. The consensus of my school is that I am completely insane.

That's all for now. I know there's more but I'm really tired of typing. If you read that entire thing, I really appreciate it and look forward to your insights.

Thanks again,
Shannon

Shadfly, I think that's a really great way of going about it, except I probably wouldn't fight someone tooth and nail to say I didn't have it, because we all know that not all doctors care about patients, and most care about money. The more time it takes to get the bottom of the problem, the more money they've gotten out of you.

I have looked at almost every other disorder/syndrome there is to look at, and AS still fits the best, unless there is a "Crazy-Not-Otherwise-Specified" somewhere out there.

I am on the fence on this topic.

I was self diagnosed for a while, but eventually sought a professional diagnosis. I do believe there are many who believe themselves to have AS, but do not. I know on other sites, I have seen those who mistake social anxieties, or shyness for AS. I'm going to list the reasons I self dx, before getting a professional dx (which I only sought after a suggestion by two of my daughter's neurologists).

I believed I had AS for the following reasons:

-Aspergers and Autism are common in my family. I have two severely Autistic cousins, a father, grandfather, great grandfather (believed to have it), and son with Aspergers. There are also many who display the traits in my family, but do not have a dx.

-I was precocious in speech and reading as a young child. I have always been overly formal with speech, particularly when discussing my favorite topics. I discussed my interest in becoming chiropractor and my interest in meteorology at length, as a 10 year old girl.

- I was sensory seeking, and inappropriate in my behavior. In school, I was repeatedly reprimanding for biting another girl's braid. I simply liked the feeling between my teeth, and would follow her around. On the other hand, I had a strong aversion to certain textures in food and cloth.

- My voice was often described as monotone by friends. I was also told my expressions were stiff, and I always looked uncomfortable when engaging in social activities.

- I stim when upset, and bounce, tip toe walk, and handflap when excited. I also have meltdowns when overwhelmed, that involve crying, shutting down, and rocking.

-I am not terribly shy, but am overwhelmed by other people. I tried, quite hard, for many of my school years to make friends. I was not terribly successful, and couldn't understand why there was a disconnect between myself and others.

-I have a hard time expressing my emotions, though I do feel them.

-I seem to function by a mental "to do" list, and often things like emptying my bladder, or cleaning up a mess, will be put off for a ridiculously long amount of time, while I do what I believe must be done first.

-I am very clumsy, and rather inept when it comes to spatial awareness. I didn't get my driver's license until 26, and am still not a terribly good driver. I am also prone to running into walls, tripping, or hitting things with the grocery cart.

-I focus so much on correctness and my version of fairness, that I have alienated a great deal of people. I am also mistreated because others assume that I'm a cerebral narcissist, or aloof, because of my formal manner of speaking.

So are lists like these describing traits and events how people SD? Is that seriously how it's done? I mean...I knew it was a loose, flimsy process...but there's gotta be more to it than THAT right???

The lists made me giggle.

Nah it's not superiority, I just firmly believe in proper a diagnosis. All this guessing makes me uncomfortable, especially when it's such a loose open process. How can I feel superior about a diagnosis I resent anyways? I don't WANT to be Autistic, unlike the majority of people here, but unfortunately I am and I have to live with that.

I wont go into why the lists made me giggle you'd probably just take that the wrong way too. But it has nothing to do with you personally.

Well I don't really remember my original diagnosis of HFA, I was young.

But my re-assesment I do remember because it was not that long ago. I saw a doctor 2 times a week for 3 weeks. She asked me questions about my life and my childhood and my experiences. I did my first ever IQ test. I did these physical exercise things (touching different parts of my body, then doing it again blindfolded is one example, something to do with spatial processing). I had to fill out about 5 different tests. I had to decipher certain metaphors and come up with solutions for hypothetical problems. My mental and physical reaction times were tested in a number of different scenarios. And yeh, stuff like that.....

I see.

Would others care to describe their experiences getting diagnosed?

I'm under the impression I can have it done in a 45 minute interview. Though perhaps not without the referral. I find you naive, hush, to suppose that the expert who'd conduct said interview is so very very wise. And yet you are very cynical in supposing that people are in general so very very bad at reading the DSM and assessing their own lives. Your faith and adoration of the psychological profession is touching.

At the end of the day, what's it going to change? You may feel some inner peace or validation by a Dx but personally I don't anticipate any tangible changes. It's not like I can go around telling people about it, for my own privacy and because I think most people (in the real world) couldn't care less or wouldn't want to be burdened with the information. Even among other aspies (and I think we tend to find each other) who meet in person it remains unspoken (for myself because I tend to associate with others on a symbiotic basis and not for the various reasons NTs associate). It's just not something I'd care to discuss with someone in person. Thankfully there is this forum.